Hopefully you all have been having a wonderful holiday season. With just hours left in 2016, we hope you have plans to close out the year and look forward to a bright 2017. If you have not made your plans for tonight yet, never fear — there are many ideas brewing at VisitAlton.com.

Discover detail on big parties like the overnight deal at Atrium Hotel and Conference Center and Bluff City Grill or even some lesser known New Year’s wonders. Be sure to dine out tonight to celebrate with our local restaurants!

As we launch into 2017, the Alton Regional CVB has plenty in store to celebrate the first few weeks of the year. Bird is the word for the first week into the New Year. Visitors have been frequently arriving at the Alton Visitor Center in search of our wintering Bald Eagles. And, luck just so has it that we have several sightings out and about along the paths of the Meeting of the Great Rivers.

Mark your calendars now for next Saturday, Jan. 7 at the Alton Visitor Center and Audubon Center at Riverlands for the Alton-Audubon Eagle Fest. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. you can win prizes, watch live ice carvings, warm up to hot cocoa, stand in awe of a live eagle at the Visitor Center, try your luck at eagle ice putt-putt and even take a 45-minute shuttle tour for eagle-watching adventures. The family fun is all stacked in your favor to have a memorable start for the first weekend of the New Year at the Alton Visitor Center!

We will also host live eagles each Saturday in January from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the event that you cannot make it to this Eagle Fest. For all of your eagle watching tools, please check out www.VisitAlton.com/Eagle.

Once we get eagle watching in full flight, it will be time to roll out the menus for the Alton Restaurant Week that will feature 21 locally owned restaurants ready to serve you some fresh meal options that will have your taste buds singing. You can start planning your adventures at www.AltonRestaurantWeek.com.

The new glass giveaway is also in house and will begin the week of Jan. 20-29 for Alton Restaurant Week. The glass celebrates Elijah Lovejoy with the monument etched in a creative tone to commemorate the 215th anniversary of his birth and 180th anniversary of his death in Alton that sent shockwaves around the world. Please plan to dine out from Jan. 20-29 at participating restaurants for your free glass. These are limited to the first 2,000 diners that bring in valid receipts from their meals purchased that week.

So take these last few hours of the year and celebrate the milestones you accomplished, just as the tourism industry experienced milestones with the launch of the new Hampton Inn, Grafton Oyster Bar and the total renovations of Atrium Hotel and Conference Center and so much more! Here’s to a wonderful new beginning to 2017!

Brett Stawar is president and CEO of the CVB, which works for the vested interests of hospitality partners in Madison County and all of Jersey and Calhoun counties.